I love how she digs into The Fool’s more traditional meanings, opens space for what else this card might offer queer-identified folks in a reading, and moves playfully into more generally queering it, offering alternatives for interpreting a message from The Fool that speaks to navigating oppressions, community activism, and more. If you’re looking for more in the world of queering tarot (are really, who among us isn’t looking for that?), check her out.

And then, DO YOURSELF A GIANT FAVOR and check out Slow Holler’s kickstarter for their tarot deck collaboratively illustrated and imagined by 29 artists and 3 writers who have Southern ties, identify as queer or both.

It looks astoundingly beautiful, and a lot of folks are whispering about it carrying the legacy of our beloved Collective Tarot. I ordered my copy – I think you’re gonna want one too.

❤

—-

Kaeti is a therapist, teacher, and dreamer based in Long Beach, California. All of her work (and play!) is interested in dismantling intersections of oppression and breathing magic and radical healing into all the daily corners of her life, into all the spaces of community she helps weave.

———-

There are photographs in this post that were borrowed lovingly from the internet and do not belong to us. Photos in this post are attributed to Kaeti unless otherwise specified. All are linked and credited to the best of our abilities in hopes of attracting more traffic to the photographers and websites who have blessed us with this imagery. The inclusion of a photograph here should not be interpreted as an assertion of the subject’s or artist’s identity or beliefs. If there is a photo included here that belongs to you and you want it removed, please email compassionaterevolt@gmail.com and it will be removed promptly, no questions asked.

Winter Solstice is this weekend, and has me thinking a lot about The Sun…

The Sun from The Gaian Tarot

Here she is in her full glory – something we remember as we connect to her during this shortest, darkest time of the year. The light in the dark. The core of heat and vitality in the cold emptiness of space. The force of warmth and life-giving power that rests as deep in the earth as it does inside each of us. We celebrate our ability to endure, share, and honor what’s born anew. We surround ourselves with reminders of what sustains us and nourishes us in dark times – community, color, sweetness, spice, warmth, fire, food, drink, joy, solitude, cozy comfort, and more.

I am loving practices like candlelight yoga – basically candlelight anything. (Attended by music about the descent to and return from the Underworld no less!) Being with the quiet and the dark, tending the spark and seeing by its light. Holding the spark of whatever comes to me in these quiet moments as a seed, held and nurtured by the darkness as it germinates, waiting to bring new magic into my life in the coming year.

What might you do to mark this time of honoring the light in the dark?

—

Kaeti is a therapist, teacher, and dreamer based in Long Beach, California. All of her work (and play!) is interested in dismantling intersections of oppression and breathing magic and radical healing into all the daily corners of her life, into all the spaces of community she helps weave.

I don’t claim her or own her- her image has not been something I’ve grown up with and yet whenever she graces my presence I have the innate knowledge that I have always known her. We haven’t spent a lot of time together but the time we’ve spent has been intimate and awe inspiring. She’s seen me at my most challenged, even when it was so dark no human eyes could make out shapes or lessons. From a deep pit with seemingly no way out she peaked over the ledge as I crawled and clawed my way up the sides, thirsty, dirty and bleeding with desperation and hopelessnes creating a lump in my throat and wells at the corners of my eyes.

She didn’t offer me a hand.

I fell back a few times tumbling to the bottom- more scratches, more bruises, bones broken, muscles torn. I learned in the dark where my body met the landscape. Aches and pains screamed out to me from places of myself I hadn’t talked to for a great long while- the loudest most blood curdling screams came from places so hidden, off the beaten path, and without directions that I had managed to erase their existence altogether until that moment when I felt them rip open.

I struggled and my wounds spread. As my wounds spread light poured in- illuminating images of tears, and sighs, and traumas, and stories, strength and weakness, vulnerability and power. Flickering images connected one after another creating resplendent backlit stories where I was antagonist and protagonist, observer and observed, nothingness and universe. As my light grew so did hers, reflections of reflections, lifting me out of the pit which was suddenly full of pathways made visible and easily traversed.

As my wounds sealed over she faded into the distance but there remained a phosphorescent glow emanating from the path I had taken. As I looked behind me I saw the long trail of my story, lamplights hung where I needed them most.

You might not know her as Akhilandeshvari.

You might know her as Heartbreak, Grief, Suffering, Loss, The Tower or DISASTER.

She remains NEVER NOT BROKEN to remind us that “The wound is the place where the light enters you {RUMI}.”

Take this darkness REVOLUTIONARIES, take these hardships, these marginalities, these struggles and most importantly these WOUNDS because (as the Collective Tarot Reminds us):

“Do not be afraid. Do not get stuck in Oppression. Coping. Trying not to change. You cannot control the disaster. The change is inevitable. It is our nature to preserve ourselves. Our dreams. Do not be afraid. The Star awaits.”

Well, traveling this world can be a weary task. The world doesn’t always (read: very rarely) makes space for the way we would like to travel: intentionally, safely, vulnerably, with open (and often wounded) hearts and minds.

On days when life is demanding and busy and not setup for your heart to do it’s greatest healing work we invite you to be gentle with yourself, good animals. Take breaks and deep breaths. Remember that REVOLUTION can be accessed through PASSIONATE COMPASSION for yourself and others.

Look into the eyes of the animals you pass in your travels– the ones you love and interact with, the ones who challenge you, the ones that may not see “goodness” in themselves and even the ones that pass swiftly through your peripheral vision. Send them love and light and wish for them nothing more/less than what we wish for you dear community,